Maria Perdikis grew up dirt-poor in Italy (literally – her house had dirt floors), rode a donkey to the hospital when she had typhoid and ended school in fifth grade to help on the family farm. Contrast that hardscrabble existence to her world today, the result of a lifetime of hard work and her ingrained Italian work ethic: owner of the Newport Family Restaurant in Delaware, owner of a home, mother, grandmother and fluent speaker of three languages.

“If you work hard, you can achieve anything,” she said in an interview at the restaurant. “I have a house. I have a family. I have the restaurant. I have everything. And I never took a penny from the government. I worked two, three jobs. I am proud of myself to be who I am today.”